My rants, raves and occasionally humorous views of Life, Liberty and especially the Pursuit of Happiness.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

A Field of Broken Dreams

I read a story in today’s online version of the Chicago Tribune that raised my ire. The story was about Little League Baseball in New Haven, Connecticut. I'd passed through New Haven in the 1960's and wasn't impressed (except for the buildings on the Yale campus).

There is this 9 year old little leaguer who has been barred from pitching in this league of 8 teams.

The first thought that comes to mind is that this kid has been hitting a lot of batters. But that is not the case. He’s just too good for the rest of the league.

They told him that he could still play in the league, but he just couldn’t pitch in the league. He possesses a 40 MPH Fastball with very good control. This is seemingly an unfair advantage to the other teams in the league. One team forfeited the game when they saw him on the mound.

However, the kid’s coach and parents say the boy is being unfairly targeted because he turned down an invitation to join the defending league champion, which is sponsored by an employer of one of the league's administrators.

The league administrators want the team to disband and the players be absorbed by the remaining 7 teams.

This reminds me of the Bad News Bears movie. My God, this is Little League Baseball not the World Series. The game should be played for the sake of the game, for the children involved in the game and not for the Parents or Sponsors.

The boy’s mom said "The whole objective in life is to find something you're good at and stick with it. I'd rather he spend all his time on the baseball field than idolizing someone standing on the street corner."

The other team managers and the league administrators are trying to prevent this from happening. And this is the real shame.

The problem as I see it is that we no longer have winners and losers. If you excell or SUCK at any given youth activity, at the end everybody gets a trophy. (this is so later in life if you still SUCK you don't claim a preexisting condition from childhood)